- Apr162013
- Apr162013
Road rage in Rwanda
Read moreWE”VE BEEN DRIVING OURSELVES in Rwanda for about a week now. There are definitely some challenges: driving on the right, the orderly chaos at roundabouts, the smoke blowing snail race as cars and bikes four or five abreast, many with clapped out engines, try to inch past each other up steep hills, with little apparent concern for oncoming traffic. And a
- Apr132013
Survivors and perpetrators
Read moreYESTERDAY WE SPENT SEVERAL HOURS FILMING with Ukuri Kuganze, a group of genocide perpetrators and survivors. They actively share their stories and provide practical help – like building houses and distributing food – in their communities. They hope to provide the courage for others to confess and ask for forgiveness and, as they put it, the ‘energy’ for survivors to be able to
- Apr112013
Tourism: Akagera National Park
Read moreTOOK A ONE DAY BREAK in the beautiful Akagera National Park. Rusizi Tented Camp was officially opened on March 26 this year, and is a huge leap for Rwandan tourism in the area. Couldn’t recommend it more highly: dinner by firelight on a deck at the edge of Lake Ihema with monkeys, birds and hippos shrieking, grunting and puffing all around.
- Apr092013
Filming the media
Read moreWHAT DO YOU THINK OF RWANDA? What message do you have for Rwandans on this 19th anniversary of the genocide? Sally being interviewed outside the Rwandan Parliament on the 19th anniversary of the genocide by East Africa TV.
- Apr082013
April 7: the 19th commemoration
Read moreSO, IT’S APRIL 7 – genocide commemoration day. Nineteen years today since 100 days of intense killing began. The general mood we have picked up here is one of remarkable hope and determination. Still, this day, and the many individual days coming up of remembering specific family members and friends who died and in terrible circumstances, is difficult and it is important.
- Apr082013
April 7th candlelight vigil, Amohoro stadium, Kigali
Read moreI wasn’t up for explaining this event last night. It began with a Walk to Remember from Parliament House to the stadium. A road full of mainly young people stretching well over a kilometre. Laughing, chatting, excited to see the president, and get the chance to have a quick chat and take a photo on their phones with the police commissioner or some
- Apr022013
The danger of the single story
Read moreNovelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice, and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
- Mar312013
“They should still be here”
Read moreThe Irish writer and journalist Fergal Keane, who travelled through Rwanda as the genocide was ending said, “this is not a subject for fine words.” Yet the memorials, selected writings and simple descriptions by Rwandans are both beautiful and intensely moving.
- Mar312013
Umuganda: community work day
Read moreWell, this morning we did our first lot of filming. So pleased! We were delighted to find out yesterday that the once-a-month community clean-up day was on the first Saturday of every month: today! So we got out our precious filming-authorisation letter and headed of with the lady who owns the guesthouse we’re staying in to film the local activities.
- Mar292013
First impressions
Read moreWELL IT’S GOOD FRIDAY and we’ve just finished breakfast. It’s pretty packed at the Good News Guesthouse this morning. There’s a team of medical volunteers on their way back to Alabama after several weeks in a hospital in south-west Rwanda, another group of Americans who spent yesterday tracking the gorilla in the north, and a couple of Germans just passing through.
- Mar172013
